The school’s search for the provost and vice president for academic affairs position is now in the evaluation stage.

On Oct. 1, the provost search committee started evaluating applications that it has been receiving since mid-August.

The search committee is comprised of 18 members, with representation from faculty, staff, trustees and students.   The members were all partially elected and appointed for their positions on the committee.

Since the job’s advertisement was posted on Aug. 10, over 100 applications have been submitted for the committee to review.  The job posting stopped running today.

The job will require candidates to be strong academic leaders and to be able to work closely with the deans of each college for the common good of the university.

Joseph Kirsch, chair and spokesperson of the search committee, said the applications are diverse in aspects like gender, academic discipline,  backgrounds and even location, with international candidates applying.

“The pool of applicants, in my humble opinion, is very strong,” Kirsch said.  “The diversity gives us a very strong pool to look at, and the stronger the pool, the more options the committee has for selecting candidates.”

The number of strong applicants to fill the job is not only good for the job itself, but for the university as a whole, Kirsch said.

“I think it suggests that Butler is well thought of out there,” Kirsch said.  “It’s very warming to read a lot of the applications that come in.”

The  committee will be reviewing applications and narrowing down the options to a list of three to six candidates to submit to President Jim Danko.    Danko will make the final decision on who is hired for the job.

“We are fortunate to have an outstanding search committee, and Dr. Kirsch is doing an excellent job in overseeing the search and assuring timely progress,” Danko said in an email.

As the committee narrows down applications, it will also be interviewing potential candidates, which Kirsch said will likely be done through a Skype format.

Kirsch said the committee is hoping to have its narrowed-down list of applicants ready in the next month, hopefully by Thanksgiving break.

However, Kirsch said the committee won’t rush the process and will take an extra week or two for evaluations if need be.

“We don’t want to be so driven by a timeline that we don’t do our job correctly,” Kirsch said.  “We want to make sure we do the process right and get the best candidate.  It’s as simple as that.”

Other committee members are not able to speak on the matter while the search is in progress.